Your high school persona is a risk factor for dementia?

If you were calm or mature in high school many years ago, does that speak to your Alzheimer's disease and dementia risk today?  Maybe it does.

A recent study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry looked at personality traits among American High School students in 1960 and related them to the incidence of development of dementia by age 70.  (The study is also discussed in this week's ALZForum.)  The researchers drew on a treasure trove of personality histories gathered in the Project Talent study of 1960.  (Here's what Wikipedia says about the original study.)  Researchers then tested 377,000 students for various traits.  (Some sources quote 440,000 students.)  They specifically evaluated for sociability, impulsivity, leadership, vigor, calm, maturity, and self-confidence.  Then in 2018 and 2019, researchers used the Medicare database to identify 82,000 of the original subjects and assess their cognitive status.

Pretty remarkable, but I'm not sure I'd want that kind of information floating around about me.  But times have changed.

What did they find?  There appears to be significant correlation between different youthful personalities and dementia risk.  Notably "vigorous" students had a 7% lower risk of dementia, while "calm" and "mature" students seemed to have a 10% lower risk.  Regardless of these factors, students with lower socioeconomic status had higher risk.

I'm not an expert on personality, but I know our ways of understanding personality have evolved over the years.  I suspect this list is outdated, since it is more common to see reference to the Big 5 traits (or the Five-Factor Model) when the slicing and dicing of personality is discussed.

The study noted that these results were consistent with other studies that looked at personality traits in later years.  A conclusion was, "Personality phenotype may be a true independent risk factor for dementia by age 70 years."  In other words, aspects of your personality are baked into your genes and subsequently influence your risk factor for dementia.  We are always trying to refine our understanding of the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and dementia.  The study authors suggest that high school personality might be considered a new one.